Campaign 2000’s annual report card shows 38 per cent of Indigenous children on reserves live in poverty, as do 42 per cent of female lone-parent families. One in three children of recent immigrants lives in poverty and income inequality is growing, the report says.

With Fiji as the president and official host of COP23, this is the first time that a low-lying small-island state has led the UN climate talks. Yet despite the urgent calls for action from nations vulnerable to climate-induced extinction, many world leaders, and certainly the global media, have turned a blind eye.

The Canadian government would like us to think that it is doing all it can to meet its Paris Accord commitments. But a closer look reveals that there are a few key shortfalls to overcome.

The working poor continue to make up an overwhelming majority in Canada’s poverty statistics, a fact that has helped make the fifth annual Chew on This! campaign the largest ever.

On Oct. 17 — the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty — 80 groups in more than 30 communities across Canada called for a national, anti-poverty strategy to deal with the estimated 850,000 people who visit a food bank each month and the 4.8 million Canadians who live below the poverty line.

An Anglican bishop, along with a coalition of leading anti-poverty and housing advocates, has urged the federal government to adopt a “rights-based” approach in its upcoming National Housing Strategy and poverty reduction strategies.

Ask yourself what images immediately come to mind when you consider who is poor in Canada today. Perhaps for many of us, the urban poor, sleeping homeless on the streets of major cities, come immediately to mind. But if you take a few minutes to read the Poverty Trends 2017 report, you may find a few surprises.

Canada is continuing to leave people with disabilities in poverty, says a report released Thursday by Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ). The faith-based organization’s annual report on poverty trends shows people with disabilities are more likely to be living in poverty than other Canadians.

More working adults are joining the ranks of the impoverished, the report found.

In today’s political and social climate, differences are often viewed as risks. Those that seek asylum become security threats warranting suspicion. People who speak a different language, or come from a different country, are seen as “other”. In the process, values like hospitality and kindness can be choked out, as concerns over the integrity of borders or scarce employment take centre stage. We can be tempted to feel that diversity compromises our safety or in some way impedes our ability to thrive.

It’s sad that Christians quoting “the poor you will always have with you” rarely follow it with the intended injunction, “therefore, you shall open wide your hand to the needy and to the poor.” By separating these phrases, we may prevent ourselves from hearing and acting on the best sense of the intended teaching of Jesus. By acting today, and on Oct. 17, we can help the gospel message come alive in our hearts and communities.